Factory tach

[blacknight80]

hey guys,

I've been working on this little side project for a little while now and I thought I would share with you. I used the idea I found on the forum to use a cutlass tach and gut it. I had a few extra instrument clusters laying around that I borrowed needles and clock delete faces from. I spent about 8-10 hours on Microsoft paint cutting and pasting numbers from a clock to ensure I had a perfect match. I scanned in the clock face in the highest resolution then zoomed way in and deleted pixels one by one. I used the R in Quartz for the R and P, I used the M from the temp gauge.
I used carb cleaner to take off the factory clear and 60 grit paper to knock of the delete plates hash marks. I followed the 60 grit with a scotch brite pad to get the brushed look back. I printed the graphic out on water slide paper and after about 10 failed attempts I got it. I kept having the decal pucker when I applied the clear to it. So i learnt to take my time and put one spittery coat on at a time. After I got a decent layer of clear coat on it I wet sanded it to smooth it out and I risked laying a heavy coat on and it worked.

I found that some of the clusters have shorter needles than others I am still playing around with the different lengths. I believe the fuel gauge, water temp and volt gauge have the longer needles.

All in I think it cost me 75 bucks.......my time isn't worth anything when I'm working on this car

$25 for the tach at a wrecker
$50 for a package of decal paper

I had the spare parts laying around so we will call them free.......I'm sure I over paid for them at one point but I won't count them.

I've also removed the v6 logo off a spare boost gauge and put the power six logo in its place but I wasn't happy withe outcome so I stripped it and am going to try again.

The next thing will be to check my stash to see if I have a spare full gauge bezel and paint it charcoal along with the radio bezel and dash bezel to mimic the 82 gn.

 

[Utah Blaine]

Wish I could do stuff like that.

 

[blacknight80]

Wish I could do stuff like that.

Lots of trial and error Blaine . I was quoted around 1000 bucks to have one made and I couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money on an instrument. If I spent that kind of cash I would be buying a gnx style setup. So once again my cheapness forced innovation lol. I really wanted to keep the dash looking factory but modify it the way Buick should have sent it out of the plant.
It always baffles me, why did the turbo buicks have such poor instrumentation. The engineers over at chev, Pontiac and olds thought a 305/307 car needed full gauge package but not us

 

[Utah Blaine]

The politics within companies is as bad as politics within our government I guess.

I like the 140 MPH speedometer. My stock speedometer goes to 85.

 

[Utah Blaine]

The politics within companies is as bad as politics within our government I guess.

I like the 140 MPH speedometer. My stock speedometer goes to 85.

Oops, I see. Its KM/H

 

[blacknight80]

The politics within companies is as bad as politics within our government I guess.

I like the 140 MPH speedometer. My stock speedometer goes to 85.

Haha. That's definitely not a mph speedo. I wish. I m north of the 49th. I'm sure there is a way to make it work with mph. Maybe a different speedo drive gear or something.

 

[charlief1]

Don't know if it will work but you've given me an interesting idea. I've got a few after market tachs and I might be able to make one of them fit and work in the location where the clock should be.

 

[blacknight80]

I should add that I scanned the cutlass tach to get the numbers in the correct spot. I then over laid it and made it transparent and I just cut and pasted each of my numbers and hashmarks where they needed to be. This way the scaling will be correct. It took forever to do but there was snow on the ground and I needed to do something to my car and without a heated shop this was about all I could do lol.

The cutlass tach guts fit in our cluster easily all I had to do was hack saw one of the posts down on the back and it slid right in. I also added a light to the side of the cluster behind the dummy light bar. It's about the only place that has room and that doesn't interfere with the printed circuit

It would be real nice if you could find an aftermarket tach that has the same size of dial and hash mark location as our clock delete plate. All it would take then is the numbers and hole drilled.

 

[charlief1]

Well I've got 3 different tachs and the largest one won't work, but the smallest one looks like it will be just the right size to fit in the housing. It's a sunpro super tach II and it's the smallest one. I took it apart and from what I can tell so far is that I'll need to make 3 holes and I've got a friend that does vinyl sings that may be willing to make an overlay that will work.

 

[usetaboost]

This has got to be one of the coolest things I've seen done for the turbo buicks. I know it's probably not worth your time but I'm sure if you could get the process down you could sell these setups. I like keeping things stock. Problem is it's easier said than done. I've always thought about some type of sweep tach for the 84-87 n/a regals and other guages mounted in the dead space on the left and right side of the steering column.

 

[blacknight80]

This has got to be one of the coolest things I've seen done for the turbo buicks. I know it's probably not worth your time but I'm sure if you could get the process down you could sell these setups. I like keeping things stock. Problem is it's easier said than done. I've always thought about some type of sweep tach for the 84-87 n/a regals and other guages mounted in the dead space on the left and right side of the steering column.

Thanks for the kind words. I definitely rolled the idea around my head to build these and the way the oil patch is slowing down up here I might have to for some extra jingle . At the risk of sounding greedy....I kinda like having the only 78-83 regal with a "stock" tach. I tend to get lost in large projects.....like my hot air conversion so I take breaks to do finicky things to regain a little ambition.

I think charley is on the right path with the vinyl for ease of application. I have heard of corvette guys (68-82) taking their centre console gauges to engraving shops and having the digits and lines zapped and then they paint in the numbers.
I think the factory screened the digits on but I have no idea how one would go about doing that.

Was the factory 82 gn dash grey simulated aluminium or was it simply painted charcoal gray? I've looked around the web but I can't find any clear pics.

 

[charlief1]

Here's what I came up with so far. Mot perfect but it will work for now. The larger face tach is just a bit to big to fit but I might be able to get a copy made and reduce it slightly so it'll fit. I did bugger up the aluminum some but this was a trial to see if it could be done. The biggest problem I had was getting the guts in. The face had to come out but I think I can cut a hole on the back or bottom so it will slide in rather than tear everything apart. I can take the case out now so I can cut a template for the holes, which will make it much easier to do if I go with the other piece I have.

 

[BEATAV8]

Man that looks great. Nice work!

 

[blacknight80]

Looking good!! I bent mine up too. I would recommend to anyone else to pick up some aluminum at their local hobby shop. I managed to break the little piece that goes along the top and I slid it up the little tracks that hold it in place but after a few coats of clear it got a little fat.

 

[charlief1]

I tried to take it out the top but used a hacksaw to cut the bottom out and slid it out that way. Just cut along the seam carefully and you can put tape over it to seal it up. With it bent up I used body hammers on an anvil to straighten it up and then had to true the sides up. Then I beveled the edge with a file so it would slide in easier. With the first one done I should be able to do the second easier and now I know how it was put together. I can use the first plate to make a template for the second, but none of this would've been possible if you hadn't come up with the idea first.

 

[b4black]

When you put the Regal needle on the Cutlass tach, how you get it in the right place? Does it somehow zero itself?

I started a project like this a long time ago, but never finished it off.. I planned to use a vinyl lines in green, yellow and red instead of numbers to mark the RPMs. Figured it would match the boost gauge below. I added a "Turbo 3.8 Litre" dash emblem to the pod. Fits nicely. I'll have to dig out the picture.

 

[charlief1]

Would love to see it Rich.

In the case of the sunpro unit, it zeros each time the key is turned on so I can put the needle where it needs to go. I won't put it to zero until I instal it in the car, but it's a start to have a functional tach that doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. If I can get an overlay made I might be able to use a needle off one of the other gauges rather than the one off the sunpro unit. The larger tach does have a bigger needle but I don't want to tear it completely since it's still a useful unit.

 

[blacknight80]

I hooked up a sun tach I had laying around with the tach I built to calibrate it. I think the cutlass tach went to 3 when the power was off. I used the orange and red from the power six logo.

 

[b4black]

Here's my Tach. The housing is a clock delete pod. The pins above the Turbo3.8Litre emblem are small screws, screwed in from the backside. I never got around to calibrating it or adding marks for a redline.

(Sorry if the image needs to be rotated. It looks right in my PC, but doesn't upload properly)

 

[charlief1]

Looks nice Rich. Did you ever plug it in?